Appletreewick River fly Workshop
24th June
The first inaugural Wharfedale AMI Riverfly training course was held both at the Craven Arms in Appletreewick and a short stone’s throw away on the river Wharfe at Appletreewick. Our course tutor Stuart Crofts talked us through the life stages of the various invertebrate classes we will be monitoring and how these invertebrates indicate the health of the river ecosystem. The team then decamped to the nearby river Wharfe where Stuart demonstrated the 3 minute kick sampling technique that the teams will us to sample their various areas of the river. Riverfly teams were split in to pairs and each pair then continued to do a range of kick sampling on the river.
After a thoroughly enjoyable time spent sampling the river each team then transported their samples back to the Craven Arms in Appletreewick for further analysis.
Lunch was taken and then the serious business of identifying and counting the various invertebrate classes was started. It soon became clear to all participants just how delicate the river ecosystem is and we were able to see through the lack of any numbers of case caddis just much impact the population of alien American Signal crayfish has had on this important family of invertebrates.
Stuart then took us through the process of data collection and its importance to both our local and national schemes. We then spent the final hour or so looking more closely at our various samples through microscopes, it is at this stage where the true beauty of these insects becomes apparent to all.We would like to take this opportunity to thank Stuart Crofts for his excellent knowledge and tuition, further thanks go to Environment Agency for giving us a grounding on the agencies role in the national scheme and their continued support for our local Wharfedale scheme. Thanks should also go to David Aynesworth and his team at the Craven Arms in Appletreewick for looking after us and letting the scheme us their magnificent Cruck Barn.
Of course the real thanks should go to the willing volunteers who make up the Wharfedale AMI Riverfly scheme. So I would like to send a personal thanks to all the members of the angling clubs and associations who have agreed to take part and support the scheme.